Heard this story on NPR this morning:

The criminal brain has always held a fascination for James Fallon. For nearly 20 years, the neuroscientist at the University of California-Irvine has studied the brains of psychopaths. He studies the biological basis for behavior, and one of his specialties is to try to figure out how a killer's brain differs from yours and mine.

About four years ago, Fallon made a startling discovery. It happened during a conversation with his then 88-year-old mother, Jenny, at a family barbecue.

"I said, 'Jim, why don't you find out about your father's relatives?' " Jenny Fallon recalls. "I think there were some cuckoos back there."

Fallon investigated.

"There's a whole lineage of very violent people — killers," he says.

One of his direct great-grandfathers, Thomas Cornell, was hanged in 1667 for murdering his mother. That line of Cornells produced seven other alleged murderers, including Lizzy Borden. "Cousin Lizzy," as Fallon wryly calls her, was accused (and controversially acquitted) of killing her father and stepmother with an ax in Fall River, Mass., in 1882.

I guess it's nice to know that cousin Lizzie's murdering ways were clearly due to the Cornell blood (via the dubiously-named Miss Innocent Cornell), and not a product of good, pure, Borden blood.

My father's mother's last name was "Borden", and so it's always been a bit of a half-joke in the family that we're related to the famous axe murderess, Lizzie Borden. Well, bored at work today, I set out to see if there's any truth to this rumor.

There is!

If I've counted correctly, Lizzie and I are 7th cousins, twice removed. (Which frankly is nearly the same as being unrelated). But, we do share a common ancestor: Mr. Richard Borden, who was born Feb 22, 1596, in Kent, England. He and his family came to America between 1634 and 1638.

I also confirmed another, less murderous, family rumor; Richard Borden is also my common ancestor with Mr. Gail Borden Jr., the man who invented condensed milk and founded Borden Milk. He and I would be fifth cousins, four times removed. Sweet! Condensed!

On another branch, you can descend the tree all the way down to Sir Winston Churchill. His mother was an American and a descendant of the American Bordens. We'd be 9th cousins or something - which is really like being unrelated!

And, according to this and this, I can also add Willie Nelson, the actress Lana Turner, a Canadian Prime Minister and, possibly, Marilyn Monroe. Which just goes to show that the human race's family tree has shallow roots.